Introduction

The concept of patents dates back to the 14th century and has constantly evolved over time. The concept of patents was introduced to encourage innovators by granting exclusive rights to technological improvements made by them. In essence, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a country in exchange for the public disclosure of its invention. The rights granted to a patentee, in most countries, include the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, importing, offering for sale, or distributing the patented invention without the permission of the patentee. . This set of exclusive rights is granted for a limited period of time, and in most cases the right is limited to 20 years.

The exclusive rights granted to a patent have commercial impact, some of which are listed below:

  • The patent holder is free to enjoy a monopoly on the patented invention for 20 years.
  • A patent holder can monetize his patented invention by selling or licensing his rights, in addition to other ways to monetize
  • Engineers and scientists can access a wealth of patent information and improvise on top of existing technology.
  • Competitors will have to create products and processes that do not violate

The business impact of patents can be used to improve the competitiveness of a company. A comprehensive, systematic and personalized approach to patents is required to use the power of patents to positively impact your business.

Four-pronged approach to improve competitiveness

  1. Build a patent fortress
  2. Proactively protect your business interests
  3. Respect the intellectual property of others
  4. Smart approach to product and process development.

Build a patent fortress

One of the approaches to improve the competitiveness of a company is to have product differentiators. Product differentiators are achieved by developing products that are technologically superior, have newer/better features, or address specific customer needs. Sometimes no product changes may be made, however, companies can differentiate themselves from the competition by offering products at discounted prices. This could be possible by making changes to the processes used to produce the product. Such modifications made to the products/processes could merit a patent. Therefore, when a company feels that it has made some modification that might merit a patent, it is important to contemplate the idea of ​​having such improvements protected by a patent.

It should be noted that such improvements give additional advantages to a business. If a company has not taken any steps to protect the improvement made by it, then competitors could also copy such improvements, thus diluting the advantage gained by the business. Furthermore, competitors could copy the products and introduce them at lower prices, since they would not have invested in product/process development. By protecting improvements made to products or processes, companies gain at least the following benefits:

  • Create a barrier to entry for competitors.
  • Maintain product or process differentiators
  • Protect products or processes from being copied by competitors
  • Enjoy the monopoly on improvements for 20 years
  • Increase the valuation of the company.

Proactively protect your business interests

The previous approach was concerned with protecting the technological improvements made by a company. While the previous approach was about building a patent fortress to safeguard commercial territory, it is equally important to monitor the patent fortress built by competitors.

It is often seen that in an attempt to build as strong a patent portfolio as possible, companies tend to protect things that already exist and sometimes try to protect improvements that are not novel and obvious. If they can protect such existing and obvious technology with patents, then they might stop others from using that technology, or at least they can stop others from using that technology until someone proves that the patents were improperly granted.

It is important to take steps to avoid finding yourself in a situation where a company uses patents granted on an existing or obvious improvement to prevent you from using that technology. This can be achieved by monitoring and opposing patent applications filed in the technology that is of interest to you.

One can monitor patent applications filed by competitors and oppose the granting of patents to such patent applications. On the other hand, one can also monitor patents being granted in related technological fields and oppose patents even after the patent has been granted. By taking these proactive steps, companies gain at least the following advantages:

  • Make sure obvious improvements are protected by competitors
  • Improve the valuation of the patents you hold in a technological field
  • Avoid being sued for infringing patents that should not have been granted in the first place
  • Easy access to freely use and adopt minor improvements in technology.

Respect the intellectual property of others

In the two approaches above, we try to build a patent fortress and ensure that competitors don’t build up their patent fortress by using minuscule technological improvements. In the current approach, we illustrate why it is important to respect the intellectual property rights of others.

As noted in the introduction, patents give the patentee exclusive rights to prevent others from making, using, selling, importing, offering for sale, or distributing the patented invention without the permission of the patentee. In other words, if you intentionally or unintentionally copy an invention patented by others, you are infringing their patent right. A patent owner can sue you for infringing his patent rights, and if the court finds him guilty, the damages he could end up paying could be significant. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the patent rights held by others while conducting your business.

A well-tested approach to ensuring that your products or processes do not infringe the patent rights of others is to carry out a Freedom to Operate (FTO) study before introducing a product into a country. It is important to research the patents that exist in the field in which you operate and determine if your products or processes infringe other patents. If it is found that products/processes may infringe other patent rights, steps must be taken to prevent such infringement and thus avoid costly lawsuits. By taking such precautions, you will at least gain the following advantages:

  • Guarantee against the introduction of infringing products on the market.
  • Avoid costly patent infringement lawsuits
  • Make sure the brand name is not tarnished by such infringement.

Smart approach to product and process development.

Remember, no one got very far reinventing the wheel, and neither did you; therefore, there is no point in reinventing the wheel. It is important to appreciate the fact that most of the problems we might be trying to solve could have been solved by someone else somewhere in the world. Therefore, it will be smart of you to look for such solutions and improvise on them. Patent data is considered the richest source of scientific information and using this information is a smart approach to product and process development.

By collecting the information provided by patents, you can work to improve the solutions provided by others. Therefore, the solution provided by you could end up much more superior and also different. In addition, the possibility of developing something that has already been developed is reduced, so your investment in R&D generates better returns. Furthermore, the cost of developing a product can be reduced simply by copying a patented invention and introducing it into a country where the invention has not been patented. Additionally, patent data can be used to analyze technology trends and plan your business accordingly.

The ways in which companies can use patent data are endless, and the benefits gained by using patent data are tremendously valuable. Some of the advantages of using this approach are:

  • Higher return on investment in R&D
  • Development of products/processes that have been improvised on top of existing technology
  • Reduced cost of product/process development
  • Better forecasting and business planning

I hope you find this article helpful in designing a patent strategy that is aligned with your business goals.

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